


Family Values

by UnderOrange



Category: teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Asexual Character, Canon Typical Violence, Canon Typical deaths, Ensemble Cast, Gen, Hale Family Feels, Resurrection, references to star trek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 05:10:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderOrange/pseuds/UnderOrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Laura woke up, everything hurt.  Hurt in a way she had never experienced before.  She wasn’t exactly thinking straight when a voice filtered into her consciousness.</p><p>“Holy shit, holy shit, we have an honest to god zombie on our hands.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t we be zombies too, then?”</p><p>“What? No, shut up.”</p><p>“Nnnnaggggh.” Laura chimed in.  Wow, that hadn’t gone as planned.  Why did everything hurt so much?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Values

**Author's Note:**

> This all started when I thought, "Man, I want Laura Hale to be resurrected. A lot." and it sort of grew legs and ran.
> 
> It's littered with Star Trek references, get's kind of silly in places, but also deals with the reality that is Derek Hale's life, so there is that. It's a story with an asexual character that is not really about being asexual. The world needs more of those, so I figured I'd add mine to the list.
> 
> I can't think of any trigger warnings that should apply other than "Beware, Peter Hale is in this fic", but if you see the need for one please let me know so I can tag it as soon as possible.

Laura was pretty sure that she may have found the single worst episode of Star Trek to ever exist.  Cora had convinced her to watch the original series, insisting that even though it was old as hell, it was surprisingly progressive.  For a ten year old, Cora had some weird taste.  Laura had watched a few episodes and promptly gotten hooked despite her better judgement, so she figured she couldn’t judge Cora too hard.  The show still had problems, of course, but it was actually pretty endearing all the same.

This episode though… if she could unwatch and delete it from existing she definitely would.

It had started out promising enough, actually.  The captain had been trapped, shirtless, and forced into a body swap with an old flame.  Standard sort of plot, honestly.  It went downhill fast as the body-stealer started to get more and more hysterical for virtually no reason, throwing an honest to god tantrum while the rest of the bridge crew eventually figured out what the hell was going on.  The real kick in the teeth was the final speech, though.  Basically “a woman should know her place, and that place is not in command”.

Laura was, in fact, in the middle of shrieking at the television and unashamedly throwing popcorn at Kirk’s smug horrible face when Derek practically swanned in, flopped gracelessly on the armchair and smiled stupidly at the tv.  Cora was enjoying Laura’s melt down a little too much and it was making her feel crabby.

“What the fuck are you so happy about.” Laura grumbled as the end credits started to play.  She cringed at her mother’s indignant “Laura!” from two rooms away.

“Huh?”  Derek was clearly not paying attention, he was still smiling benignly and it was so far out of character for her brother she was instantly suspicious.  Annoyingly, now that she knew mom was listening in, she couldn’t be too mean about getting his attention.

“What’s with the dopey look on your face?”

He scowled.  She smirked, they were getting back into familiar territory.  Cora was eyeing Derek with interest now, which was just a bonus.  “Your face is always kind of dopey, but today it’s like, extra dopey.”  She gasped dramatically, “Have you met someone?”

The look of horror that flitted across his face confirmed everything, Laura leaned over the arm of the couch and wheedled, “Who is she, what’s her name, why haven’t you brought her home yet, can I meet her, will I see her at schoooool?”

Laura spent the rest of the night enjoyably teamed up with Cora to torment Derek as much as possible.  They didn’t get a single answer out of him, but that wasn’t even the point.

\---

Laura had a fuck ton of homework to do.  She assumed it was high school’s way of congratulating her for making it to senior year, but really it just made her want to throw things and run screaming into the night.  It’s entirely possible the only thing keeping her from doing just that is the look of betrayed disappointment her mom would throw her way when she finally came back.

She had commandeered an entire picnic table outside the school.  It was her study hour and she adamantly refused to spend it indoors if it was at all possible. As a result, her homework was strewn with rocks to hold it all in place.

She was so engrossed in a Calculus problem that she didn’t even register company.

“You’ve got your Algebra wrong on that one, that’s why you’re not getting the right answer.

Laura nearly jumped out of her skin at the interruption and snarled at Peter, who smiled benignly at her reaction.

“What the actual fuck, Peter?”  She said, sagging in relief that it’s just her uncle startling her into distinctly wolf-like behavior and she hadn’t just accidentally terrorized a classmate.  He was leaning over her, pushing her personal space to see the equation over her shoulder.

He shrugged and slipped onto the bench next to her, facing in the opposite direction, “Language, Laura, language.  Just thought I’d help out my favorite niece.”

Laura snorted.  According to Peter, everyone is his favorite.  The only person he didn’t refer to as his favorite was Laura’s mother, the alpha.  When called on it he teased that she’s his only sister, so that exempts her from favorites.  It would be insulting if it wasn’t such a common game they played.

“If you really want to help, you could start writing my book report.”

“Oh?  What book?”  He actually looked interested.  Laura couldn’t fathom why, she wasn’t even interested.

“I don’t even know.  There is a nine out of ten chance that it’s about a boy bonding with his dog, though.  Spoiler, the dog dies at the end.”

Peter raised a skeptical eyebrow.  “How do you know the end if you didn’t read the book?”

She scoffed and turned back to her Calc homework.  “Don’t be dense, the dog ALWAYS dies at the end.  How long ago since you’ve had to read something for English?  If it’s not written by Shakespeare it’s about a dog that dies.”

Peter just chuckled and leaned back against the tabletop like it wasn’t totally weird he was sitting around a high school.  Laura considered pointing it out, but the bell rang and she had exactly six minutes to gather up her shit and get to English.

\---

Laura flopped into the chair across from her mother in the dining room kitchen.  It had been nearly impossible getting her mother alone and she didn’t care if she was interrupting balancing the checkbook or whatever, this shit was important.

“Something happened and you aren’t telling me about it.”  It wasn’t a question.  Talia stared at her daughter with an expression somewhere between pride and exasperation.  While Laura’s astuteness was not always convenient to Talia I-Am-Alpha-Of-This-Pack-Laura-You-Would-Do-Well-To-Remember, it spoke volumes about her dedication to the pack.  Normally Laura enjoyed eliciting that particular eyebrow twitch, but today she was just too annoyed to gloat about it.  “Derek has been moping in his room for two solid weeks.  Even for his emo little ass, that’s pretty extreme.”

Talia’s mouth shifted downwards.  Her daughter’s colorful language was a constant source of contention between them.  Laura barreled on, hoping to avoid giving her a chance to comment on it.  “Plus you’ve been avoiding me.  Don’t deny it, you know I can always tell.  You haven’t talked to me at all since the meeting with those other packs in the distillery.  This is big, isn’t it?”

With a sigh, Talia finally responded.  “Derek’s going through some things right now.  I don’t want to make it any harder on him, so can you go easy on him for a while?  And as far as you’re concerned, our relations with Ennis and Deucalion’s packs are a closed book.  We are done with that, if any of them approach you, you come to me immediately.  We talked about this already.”

Laura narrowed her eyes.  Being left out of the loop rankled.  Her mom had pulled similar things in the past, delicately (and sometimes not so delicately) pointing out that while Laura is being groomed to be an Alpha, she was not one yet.

“You know I only tease him in fun.”  She shot for flippant, dropping the pack business entirely, and prayed her mom was too distracted to call her on it.

“I’m serious, Laura.  He’ll be okay, he just needs time.”

With a nod, Laura made her excuses and left more worried than when she started.

\---

“Deeeeereeeek.” Laura stretched his name to obscene lengths because she knew it annoyed him.  Her brother didn’t even twitch.  He was sprawled over his bed listening to some god awful emo band as he stared at the ceiling.  Laura sniffed and assured herself she was never this ridiculous when she was his age.

“Seriously Derek oh my god what are you even listening to?”

He didn’t respond.  Laura huffed and flopped bonelessly onto his bed next to him.  When he didn’t even shift she started to get concerned.

“Wanna watch Star Trek with me?  I’m thinking we haven’t seen that episode where they get terrorized by a cat’s shadow in a while.”  Still nothing.  She was being nice for god’s sake, he could at least grunt or something.

“Dude, seriously, what the hell is up with you?”  He turned his head away from her slowly, obstinately refusing to respond.  Laura’s lips thinned and she growled, officially out of patience.

“Look, you little shit.  I know something happened, and if appearances are to be believed, you were at the center of it.”  She shifted to jab him in the chest with her finger.  “If you compromised the safety of this pack, I will personally eviscerate you and feed you to a feral cat.”

He remained unmoving.  With an annoyed hiss Laura stormed out.

\---

Laura was sitting upside down on the couch with her legs dangling over the back and brooding about life in general.  Her brood included but was not limited to; her brother being a dickface, her mother treating her like an obstinate child, and her general inability to get anybody to talk about anything.

She was rudely interrupted by Cora sitting right on top of her stomach.

“What the hell.”  Laura didn’t bother to add inflection to make it a question.  “You have literally the entire rest of the couch, the loveseat, and an ottoman to sit on, and you sit on me.”

Cora gasped in obviously fake surprise and leaned over to look down at Laura’s chin, digging her knee into Laura’s armpit and getting a pained grunt for her effort.  “I didn’t see you there.”

With a groan, Laura dumped Cora to the side and started tickling her mercilessly.  She got a knee to the jaw and what would have been a nasty bruise on anyone who wasn’t a werewolf.

They eventually got kicked out of the house for shrieking too loudly, but it was alright.  It was pretty hard to brood when Cora announced her need for vengeance and started chasing her through the woods, laughing.  Brooding was totally overrated, anyway.

\---

After several months of Derek obstinately avoiding her and just generally being a contrary little snot, Laura finally had to do something.

She waited for him outside the front door of the school after classes one day.  When Derek emerged, laughing raucously with his friends she snagged him by the back of the neck, claws extended and threatening to draw blood.

“Say goodbye to your little cronies, brother.”

They laughed and walked on while Derek fumed at her.  “What the hell, Laura?”  She steered him to the side, away from the crowd of students steadily dispersing.  He fought her, but she just dug her claws in farther.

“First you’re up, then you’re down, and now you’ve decided to turn into the little delinquent our family never needed.  What the hell are you even doing, Derek?”

“Jesus, I’m not doing anything, what are you talking about?”  She listened to his heart thumping erratically for a second before she pushed him away roughly.  Though his neck healed her scratch marks quickly, she could still see a little trickle of blood that disappeared under his pretentious leather jacket.

“Where are you sneaking off to at night?”  All of the blood drained from her brother’s face before anger replaced shock and flooded his cheeks with red.

“It’s none of your business.”

“I think it kind of is, Derek.  I may not know exactly what happened four months ago, but I do know that you were in the center of it.  You know damned well we’re supposed to be keeping a low profile right now.  Whatever happened pissed off a whole host of hunters that want nothing more than to have an excuse to kill us all.”

He tried to push past her and she grabbed a fist full of his shirt, slamming him against the wall of the school.  His snarl was accompanied by a flash of electric blue eyes.  Laura gasped, letting go and recoiling in surprise.

“Derek.  Derek, you fucking didn’t.”

The power of the alpha hit her then, a surprising surge that flooded her all at once, accompanied by panic and pain that couldn’t be her own.  It was a good thing most of the other kids had dispersed because she felt herself shift involuntarily as she stared at Derek, not comprehending what just happened.

He made a broken sound, “Your eyes.”

It clicked into place.  “Oh my god.  Mom.”

When the phantom pain faded away it left behind an emptiness that was so much worse.

\---

Eventually they found themselves sitting on the bed of an ambulance outside the house, watching firefighters battle the flames.  She realized she was clutching Derek to her side like he was a lifeline, tethering her to the world.  She thought to herself, “I should let him go, this must be so embarrassing, he’s 16.” but when she shifted to let go he whimpered.  With a soft sound of surprise, Laura wrapped him back up in a hug and didn’t let go for a long time.

The firefighters found Peter hanging on to life in the wreckage.  The flurry of activity that surrounded them became even more frantic.  Laura and Derek scrambled out of the way to watch as he was rushed to the hospital.  Derek looked up at her and the hope in his face made her ache.

“Is he…” He looked to the side at the EMT’s and cops milling around.  She knew what he was asking.  Will Peter be okay?  Can she feel him, now that she’s the alpha, the way mom always could?  The instructions she was given were all in hypotheticals, at the time it had seemed so simple.  She couldn’t recall a single lesson in that moment.

“I don’t know…  I can’t.  I don’t know how.”  Her voice was broken.  She didn’t recognize it.  When Derek’s face crumbled she grabbed him roughly and buried her nose in his hair, fighting back a sob.

\---

Laura thanked every deity she’s ever heard of and then tacked on a few she made up for the occasion that her mother trusted her enough to give her access to the family’s bank accounts.  She was pretty sure that there was never a more appropriate time to dip into the emergency funds to rent out a motel room, especially when some of the cops started making noise about temporary foster care.

Laura discovered that it was nearly impossible to juggle school work, funeral plans, insurance fuckwittery, and Jesus fuck she needed to figure out if she could even get custody of Derek as an 18 year old and his only living relative not currently in a coma.  There were only two weeks of school left, however, and she was able to make special arrangements with the principal to test out and graduate on time.

It was a few weeks after she graduated (she hadn’t gone to the ceremony, why bother?) when Derek came into their shared room to find Laura perched on the edge of the shitty motel mattress staring at her hands.

“Laura?”  She snapped to attention, grasping desperately at the illusion of competency she’d been trying to project throughout the whole ordeal.  He sat down next to her and she sagged, unable to muster the energy.  She was just so tired.

“Derek, I don’t think I can do this.”  She didn’t really know what kind of response she was expecting, but the disbelieving snort was a bit of a surprise.  She shook her head and finally met his eyes.  “No, really, everything is falling apart.  I miss everyone so fu-”  Her throat closed over the word.  She wasn’t sure she could handle the ringing silence where her mother’s voice should be chastising her for swearing.  “I miss them.  But there is so much to figure out.  I’m not stupid, but all this paperwork is ridiculous and complicated.  The lawyer that’s supposed to be helping with the will keeps lying to me and I don’t know why. Plus…”

This was the hard part.  This was the part that had terrified her.  “I don’t think… I don’t think they’re going to let me adopt you.  Which means you’ll probably get put in foster care until you’re 18.”  She ran a hand through her own hair, grabbed a fistful and tugged at it nervously while she looked at him from the corner of her eyes.  He made a small sound, but was otherwise quiet.  She remembered a time that would have just annoyed her, but at the moment it was terrifying.

“God, say something, please.  I know I’ve been kind of an ass to you, but I can’t-” She didn’t know out how to end that sentence.  It turned out she didn’t have to, Derek practically dove at her and she found herself being squeezed hard enough it would have probably bruised a human.

“Don’t leave me.” He muttered into her collar, muffled and tight.  She squeezed him right back.

“Okay… okay.  We’re in this together.”  He made a little sound of disbelief and that was just not on.  Laura pulled him away and looked him in the eyes, feeling her own glow red.

“I will kidnap you if I have to.”

\---

She ended up actually having to kidnap him and reflected with grim humor that it was one of the easiest decisions she’d made since the fire.

They stopped by the care center Peter was in to say goodbye.  It was everything she could do not to snarl at the nurse who insisted he can’t hear them anyway.  It would be less of an issue if they didn’t constantly remind them every goddamned time they came.

Peter was still covered in bandages; his wounds were extensive enough that his accelerated healing just didn’t seem to be setting in.  They had been told he wasn’t expected to wake up and asked if they should pull the plug several days previously.  Laura had refused and set up a payment plan for his care on the spot.  They may not be able to stick around physically, but she would be damned if she didn’t at least get him taken care of.  When she had finally bested the fucking lawyer (it may have involved subtle flashes of glowing eyes and not-so-veiled threats) they had plenty of funds available.

Admittedly, buying the Camero may have been a bit much, but if they were going to break the law and road trip across the country to escape they may as well do it in style.

They drove in silence for the first couple of hours before Laura finally broke and could not handle the quiet any longer.

“So I don’t know if I’m pleased or completely disgusted that forging school transfer papers is actually easier than procuring our perfectly legal inheritance funds.”

Derek’s eyes slid from the road to stare at her consideringly.  Finally… finallyfinallyFINALLY, his lip twitched and he responded, “Careful, you’ll be a delinquent yet.”

For the first time in what felt like a lifetime; Laura laughed.  The joke wasn’t even all that funny and the laughter might have gotten a little high and skirted the edge of hysteria, but it was a start.

\---

As the years passed they started to get used to being the only one the other had.  Derek started to display his bone dry sense of humor that Laura always delighted in, and Laura tried to be less of an asshole about her wheedling and teasing tendencies.  They came to a comfortable sort of peace.

When Derek graduated Laura made him go to the ceremony because she kind of regretted skipping her own.  She made an enormous congratulation sign and screamed as loud as she could to try and make up for the other voices that should be there.  She expected to at least get his ears to turn red with embarrassment, but wasn’t disappointed when he just spotted her in the crowd and flashed her a tiny smile instead.

They celebrated with ice cream and by crashing the graduation parties of his classmates.  It was probably more fun than it should have been; lurking in the background and rating each party on a scale of snooze-fest to shit-show.

Laura couldn’t quite get over the nagging feeling that something was incomplete.  She never pressured Derek into telling her about how his eyes changed, though she knew she should.  ‘Next time,’ she told herself, ‘Next time when it won’t completely shatter this small bit of peace we’ve found.’

\---

Laura was lounging in her bed, poking at the computer in a desperate attempt to find something even remotely interesting to look at.   She had resorted to checking the news of all things when she heard Derek knock softly at her door.

“What’s up?”

He was leaning up against the frame in a pose that was clearly shooting for casual but really really failing.  Her brow furrowed.  It wasn’t that she stopped getting annoyed by his long dramatic silences, she’d just gotten much better at waiting them out.

“I wanted to tell you about my eyes.”  His voice was probably softer than a human would catch, but the words had her sitting up straighter and dumping her computer on the night stand.  She scooted to the edge of the bed and patted the spot beside her.  Part of her thought that if she spoke then he may shut down completely, so she just waited.

Derek sat down next to her and stared at his hands darkly, working himself towards speaking.  Eventually, he told her about Paige.  Explained that he was afraid of losing her so he got Peter to convince one of the visiting Alphas to bite her and it didn’t take.  It took several long minutes before he could admit that, in the end, he couldn’t take her pain any longer and had ended it quickly.

Laura set her hand on his back while he spoke, shooting for comforting even though she could feel bile burning the back of her throat.  When Derek stopped speaking, they sat in silence for a long time.

“Say something, please.”  He mimicked her plea from years ago.

“I don’t know what to say.  I mean.  You sound like you regret it, which is good.  You really really should.  She wasn’t a thing to keep.  She was a person and you took away her ability to make a really important choice.  Even if she had turned, not everybody sees the bite as a gift.”

Laura sighed, feeling like an ass. “You fucked up.”  It was the first time she swore out loud since the fire and she wondered if Derek caught that.  Judging by his shriveled, miserable posture; probably not.  “You fucked up really badly but now you know, right?  You’re never gunna take someone’s choice from them again, are you?”

He shook his head, still the picture of sorrow.  Laura tried to think of something else to say that might help.  After a moment, she gave up.  She always did kind of suck at pep talks.  “Look, for what it’s worth, I still love you.  I can’t absolve you of this and nothing I say will make that guilt go away, but at least you know now what you did wrong.”

They sat in silence a while longer until Laura just couldn’t take it anymore.  “Pizza tonight?  I don’t think I have it in me to cook.”

\---

“I don’t know how you like this show.” It was a quiet Sunday and they were both watching Star Trek because as far as Laura was concerned, quiet Sunday’s were made with Star Trek marathons and popcorn in mind.  Technically, Derek was pretending to read a book and just happened to be in the living room, but Laura was totally on to him by this point.

“Tribbles, Derek.” She said, as though that explained everything.  On the screen, Spock was petting a ball of fluff while the crew surrounding him smirked.

Derek just raised an eyebrow at her until she rolled her eyes and provided a real response.  “It just tries SO HARD, you know?  It’s just everything that’s great about science fiction.  It imagines a world where people are better.”

He snorted, “It gets a lot wrong.”

Crunching on popcorn, Laura contemplated her response.  “Yeah, I mean it really does.  When you compare it to the time period, though, it was super progressive.  And it just kept trying to get better and better, each new series.”

Derek got that evil glint in his eyes that had her grabbing an extra big handful of popcorn. “Tell me again about the recent reboot movies, Laura.”

“UGH, we do NOT talk about the reboot.”  He didn’t really laugh but he did look insufferably smug right up until she rained popcorn down on his head.

\---

Laura stumbled across the picture and a Beacon Hills news article on another slow news day.  Sucking in a sharp breath, she leaned towards the laptop screen and read the entire article closely.

The article itself was fairly useless.  It just describes the picture, really.  Animals being found with a spiral burned into them.  Whoever wrote the article didn’t know they were the symbol for revenge.

She automatically thought of the one pack that would definitely have need for revenge in Beacon Hills and her heart threatened to thud out of her chest at the very idea that there could be another Hale left.  She printed off the picture and stuffed it into her pocket, already trying to decide what to bring on the trip.

She didn’t want to get Derek’s hopes up, so when he asked she let her explanation stay fairly vague.  There really was something weird going on that she should check out, and for all she knew it could be another pack creeping on Hale territory in their absence.  Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to check in on Peter.

When she left, she gave Derek a big hug goodbye.  “It shouldn’t take long.  I’ll call, yeah?”

He just shrugged like he didn’t care, but when she tackled him for a second hug he didn’t pull away, either.

\---

When Laura woke up, everything hurt.  Hurt in a way she had never experienced before.  She wasn’t exactly thinking straight when a voice filtered into her consciousness.

“Holy shit, holy shit, we have an honest to god zombie on our hands.”

“Wouldn’t we be zombies too, then?”

“What? No, shut up.”

“Nnnnaggggh.” Laura chimed in.  Wow, that hadn’t gone as planned.  Why did everything hurt so much?

Seemingly out of nowhere there was a hand offering her a straw.  “Sip this, it’ll taste like shit but I promise it will help.”

The voice was right, it was pretty much the most horrible thing Laura had ever tasted.

\---

Laura got the feeling there was a lot of time lost as she flitted in and out of consciousness.  The pain didn’t really fade, even in her dreams she could feel it burning angrily.

Sometimes she heard voices.  There was definitely a woman and a man, most of the time.  The woman was sharp, sarcastic, and perpetually laughing.  The man’s voice was smooth and soft, he didn’t talk a whole lot, but when he did the woman fell silent and listened.

Very rarely, she felt like she heard Peter.  She could never concentrate enough to really understand what they were saying, and inevitably the darkness consumed her again.

\---

It felt like forever and no time at all before she found herself half sitting and sipping whatever the awful concoction is as she stared at the bodies that appear to belong to the voices that kept her constant company while she healed.  They appeared to be in an abandoned storage building.

The woman… well, girl, really, Jesus they both looked so fucking young, smiled encouragingly.  “Nice to see you join the land of the living.”

Laura quirked a brow.  Everything still hurt, but it was getting more manageable.  She wasn’t sure the searing pain along her abdomen would ever go away, though.  “Who are you?”

“Ah, right!  I’m Erica, this is Boyd.”  She indicated the boy next to her.  They look like they would be gorgeous, if it weren’t for the sunken, waxy complexion they were both sporting.  Laura took a tentative sniff and determined that they are probably weres, though it was hard to tell.  Every other scent was nearly drown out by the smell of death and decay.

“You look like hell.”  Laura was pretty sure she used to be polite to strangers.  Maybe.  At one point.  It got hard to care when she still felt like she was missing half her intestines.  Erica handed her another glass of pure evil.  “What happened.  Why are you keeping me here?”  Plus there was always the possibility these two, however unwell they looked, were the reason she felt like complete shit.

The girl snorted, pushing back matted blonde hair as she situated herself against a crate to get more comfortable.  “We didn’t kill you, if that’s what you’re implying.  In fact, we helped bring you back.”  She nodded towards the drink in Laura’s hand.

The boy sent her sidelong look, “Erica.”

“OH!  Right.  Uh.  So you died.  If it’s any consolation, so did we.  Peter brought us back.”

Laura leaned back against the pile of rags she’d been using as a pillow and stared at the ceiling.  They could not possibly think she would buy that she had died.  “Peter…”

“Hale.” Erica provided, helpfully.  “He said he’s your uncle.

“My uncle who is in a coma.” Laura supplied, disbelief palpable.

Erica whistled.  “Man.  Where to begin.”  She looked at Boyd for an answer and he just shrugged.

\---

It turned out Erica and Boyd did not know nearly enough to satisfy Laura.  Erica told her she was killed, cut in half, and dead for nearly two years while Boyd scribbled in a ratty notebook that looked like it had seen better days.  They don’t actually know who killed Laura, but she could pretty much assume it was hunters.  Rival packs don’t generally use swords.

Erica also told her that she and Boyd were bitten wolves, and that Derek is their Alpha.  Laura frowned at that.  She was pretty sure she would have had to consciously give up being the Alpha to have passed it along to Derek, and she didn’t remember doing so.  Though, to be fair, she didn’t remember large patches of her life either.

“The memories are still there.” Erica assured her.  “You were dead for so long though, the little connector bits of your brain rotted away.  They started healing as soon as you were alive again, but apparently there is just so many of them that it takes a really long-ass time.  I wasn’t dead for as long, so the only thing I can’t remember was leading up to my death.”

Laura ran her hand along the stitched together scar that stretched all the way around her midsection.  She hadn’t believed them until she lifted her shirt to find out she was the fucking bride of Frankenstein.  It explained the pain, anyway.

They went on to explain how they had died at the hands of the Alpha pack and that Peter had resurrected them before he resurrected Laura.  Boyd’s eyes never lifted off the page of his notebook, but he would drop information into the conversation every now and then, gently guiding Erica back on track when she went on a tangent.

“Apparently it’s a lot harder to resurrect someone that’s been dead for years rather than weeks.” Erica shrugged and Laura snorted.  The conversation was not getting less surreal as it went on.

“How the hell did he resurrect us though?  I mean holy shit.  That’s…”  Laura had often been left out of the loop when it came to magical mystical times.  The resident witch wasn’t too fond of wolves getting all up in his business and Talia had respected that, often going to him alone and as a last resort.  Laura got the idea that resurrecting people was pretty frowned upon, though.  As a general rule she had the impression that there was a reason people didn’t go around doing it all the time.

Erica didn’t respond, just swatted Boyd on the arm and nodded towards Laura.  Boyd handed Laura the notebook.  It was covered in sprawling spirals, vines covered in decorative scribbled leaves, and twined amongst it all was the message:

_Peter killed you.  He doesn’t know we know._

“What…” Laura started, then stopped herself.  She looked up to Boyd and Erica.  They stared right back, reading her reaction carefully.  Erica had a finger to her lips and waved her other hand towards the wall.  They probably thought he was listening in, then.  Laura strained to hear a heartbeat, but the effort just gave her a headache.

‘Fuck.’ Was all her brain supplied.  She tried to dredge up some memories of Peter, but beyond the general impression that he existed and would occasionally snark something hysterical at inappropriate times she was drawing a blank.  She hoped her memories would come back to give her insight, because until then she had no idea what to think.  It was hard to believe her uncle would kill her, but coming back from the dead was giving her a unique perspective on what was and wasn’t believable.

She handed the notebook back to Boyd and fished desperately for something else to say, “What is this shit you’ve been feeding me, anyway?”

Erica laughed, “I don’t think you want to know.”

\---

Despite the gnawing unease caused by a severe lack of information, her weakened state, and being surrounded by people she had no idea if she could trust, Laura did not have to fake her enthusiasm when Peter finally deigned to grace them with his presence.  

The instant she saw him, memories start firing up in her head.  Particularly how he looked after the fire, broken and bandaged.  She got a few flashes of him before the fire as well, impressions tinged with the comfortable feeling of family that almost hurt to think about.  She sat up quicker than she should have and demanded to be hugged.

Peter obliged to the hugs gracefully and even put up with her poking and prodding his completely healed face.

“Oh my god, it really is you.”  She hugged him again, a lump rising in the back of her throat.

“How’s my favorite niece?” He asked, with a soft smile.

Laura surprised herself with a broken noise.  “Can’t… can’t be your favorite, Peter.  I’m your only niece.”

To her surprise, he grinned.

\---

Peter told her about how Derek and Cora had left together after they had defeated the Alpha pack and it made something in Laura’s heart want to explode in a way that was painful but also warm.  They hadn’t told anyone where they were going, but Laura couldn’t help but see the parallel to her and Derek’s own escape from Beacon Hills.  There was less kidnapping involved, but since Cora wasn’t exactly a legal adult and had been living off the grid, that was actually pretty arguable.

Nobody could tell her much about Cora beyond the fact that it was the Alpha pack who found her, and didn’t that just grate at Laura’s every nerve.  Erica hadn’t even met her and Boyd said she hadn’t talked much to anyone who wasn’t Derek.  Laura was having a hard time imagining her goofy little sister acting the way he described, but from the sound of it they had been through a hell of an ordeal with the bank vault.

In a fit of frustration, Laura demanded a cell phone.  Looking confused, Boyd provided one.  Laura ignored Erica’s demands to know when the hell he got a cell phone and why didn’t he bring her along to dial a number she’d had memorized for years.

“Derek?  Where are you?  I want to see Cora.”  She doesn’t bother with niceties, since she never really had with him in a long time.

“Who is this?”  Laura rolled her eyes but bit back her normal impatient response.  She reminded herself that no, she’s been dead for two years, it is a totally valid question.  Even if it was rude.

“It’s Laura.  Come see me, I’m in Beacon Hills.”  There is a moment of furious silence and then the line clicks.  Laura stared at the phone, betrayed.  He had hung up on her.

\---

She didn’t leave the warehouse for a long time.  It had become a bizarrely safe space, despite the distrusting stare Erica not-so-subtly sent Peter’s way behind his back.  The two teens seemed surprisingly laid back, considering everything, and their calm was infectious.  They were both looking better and better by the day, until Laura felt like she was the only one that death clung to so tenaciously.

Eventually cabin fever set in and Laura had to get out, pain from her mortal wounds be damned.  It was at least partially brought on by the shitty surroundings.

“Seriously why a warehouse though?  Doesn’t he have an apartment or something?”  She had to grab Erica’s arm for support and it was making her feel cranky as hell.

“Yeah I dunno.  Though, no offence or anything, but is it a Hale thing?  Derek’s choice in living locations was… pretty questionable.”

Laura shot her a dirty look and snorted, “I’ll have you know, we lived in a gorgeous house before the fire.  AND our apartment in New York wasn’t too shabby, either.  I mean, it was kind of small, but that’s what you get in a big city.”

Erica made a thoughtful noise as she helped Laura into the grocery store.  “Couldn’t tell ya, then.  What did you want to pick up, anyway?  It’s not like we have a kitchen.”

With a sigh, Laura turned towards the produce section with determination.  “If I have to eat one more hot pocket I’m going to throw up and god only knows if that would involve intestines or not.  I’m still not sure everything’s getting put together correctly down there and I may have extra at this point.”

Erica laughed as Laura started poking determinedly through the apples, “That is so gross.”

An odd sound from their left caused Laura to look up and squint at… oh great, another high schooler.  She went back to the apples and just listened.

“... Erica?”

“Stiles!  Hello.”  She sounded pleased.  Laura moved on to the bananas. They were looking pretty rough.  Did this grocery store have any actually fresh fruit?

“You’re dead.”  The boy sounded pretty firm on the fact, but the suspicion that laced his tone made her look up.  Erica was grinning like a cheshire cat.

“Was, anyway.”  Everything about her posture told Laura that she was interested in Stiles.  It was adorable, teenagers were just the opposite of subtle.  Laura couldn’t help the smirk at it, she’d been needing some dirt to tease Erica with.

The boy, in the meantime, was gaping like a fish.  “How… what?”  He glanced at Laura for an answer and did the biggest double take she’d ever seen.

“Uh.  Do I know you?”  She asked, she was pretty sure she didn’t know anybody named Stiles but looked to Erica for confirmation anyway.  Erica was just amused, her eyes glued to the boy.

“Jesus… Laura?  Laura Hale?” He was getting a little pale.  Laura frowned.

“Have we met?”

He rolled his eyes, gesturing dramatically, “Not as such?  I mean, you were just -cut in half at the time-”  He glared at her like it was her fault.

She squinted at him suspiciously, it didn’t seem likely he would have had anything to do with her death, so how would he have become familiar with her corpse?  He didn’t hold himself like a hunter, though, and at the moment he was the opposite of threatening.  “Mmm, oh yes, I suppose I wouldn’t remember that.”  She went back to perusing the truly tragic banana display.

He made an indignant noise and Laura could hear Erica laughing.

“Oh my god, I need to tell Scott.”

Laura moved on to the pears.  She wondered vaguely if Boyd liked pears.  She grabbed a few, because hell, she liked pears, he could deal.  “Who’s Scott?”

Stiles didn’t respond.  With a shrug, Laura headed off towards the snack aisle.  Erica followed beside her with a quick goodbye that went completely ignored.  She subtly offering her arm if Laura needed it.  Laura appreciated the effort, but declined.  It wouldn’t do to look too weak in public.  Even if she still felt split in half.

Stiles didn’t follow and it didn’t really concern her.

\---

Laura was in the middle of a truly mediocre pudding cup when Derek and Cora burst into the warehouse looking ready to fight.  Erica and Boyd immediately abandoned their game of cards to stand, but didn’t wolf out or do anything overtly threatening.

Derek looked a bit like he’d been gutted.  Cora stood beside him looking hopeful and Laura had to stop herself from swooping in to hug her right then.  She figured sudden movements were probably not the best choice right now.  She settled for sending her a friendly little wave, then put her finger just under her right eyelid and slid it down, making a face in a time honored Hale sister tradition.  Cora looked like she was torn between laughing and crying.

“How can you...”  Derek looked like he didn’t know the first thing to ask.  “All of you, how?”

Erica smiled tentatively, “Peter brought us back.  We don’t know why.”  She looked up to Boyd, who nodded in agreement.

Derek shook his head in wonder and turned back to Laura, he took a step closer but his face was carefully blank.  “You can’t be real though.  I saw…  I buried you.”  She’d never heard his voice so broken.

“All right then.  Something only I would know.”  She had rehearsed this.  Laura took a deep breath and tried not to think about their audience.  “A year ago… well, okay, it wasn’t a year I guess I’ve been dead for a while.  Fuck.  Anyway, a -while ago- I told you I was ace and you didn’t understand.  You asked questions until I got really pissed and we had one of those fights that dredges up stupid little shit that normally doesn’t matter.  Afterward, though, you looked it up and and found that silly thing on the internet that says most ace people like cake more than sex so you apologized by making a cake.”

His expression was clearing up as hope crept into it, but she continued on because the next part was her favorite part.  If she was going make embarrassing announcements in front of everyone she’s damn well going to try to embarrass him, too.  “Only you’d never made a cake before, and you tried to make it colors from the ace flag and it was the most tragic looking cake I have ever seen in my entire life.  I ate it anyway because you looked like you’d cry if I didn’t at least try it.” He made a soft, familiar noise of protest that she ignored entirely,  “It tasted good, though.  We lived off of cake for two solid days and never spoke of it again.”

She couldn’t help herself, she struck a sort of ‘ta-da!’ pose and was nearly flattened when he barreled into her, hugging her tight enough to hurt.  Cora followed shortly after and Laura had to swallow the lump that was growing in her throat.

“You still smell like death,” Derek complained.  Cora giggled and nobody called her on how it was just a little too high pitched.

Laura rolled her eyes and sniffled, trying desperately to keep the waterworks at bay, “Yes yes, working on it, sorry healing decomposition takes such a long ass time.  Oh my god let go you guys, I was cut in half you know.”  They both jerked back looking concerned.  “I’m fine, really.”

For the second time in minutes, the door to the warehouse burst open.  Everyone turned to stare at Stiles, who wielded a baseball bat and looked a little winded.

“Scott?”  He said, hopefully.

Erica blinked at him, “Not here.  Why?”

With a sound of frustration Stiles turned back to the door like he was contemplating running right back out again.  He hesitated, “He said he was going to meet up with Allison, but she didn’t ask to see him.  The last time this bullshit happened Peter was pulling the strings.”

Laura made a thoughtful noise, “Didn’t Peter go out to buy more horrible hot pockets like, hours ago?”  Truth was, her uncle disappeared pretty regularly and she didn’t think too much about it.

“Shit.” Stiles swore and made to leave.  Before he could even make it to the door three more people pushed their way in.  Two girls, a brunette that was armed to the teeth and looked ready to use the crossbow she was sporting and a red head that hung back, assessing.  Lurking close to the brunette’s elbow was another werewolf, tall and lanky.  When they saw Stiles they relaxed marginally, though the crossbow didn’t lower far.

“No luck?” The brunette asked, looking particularly worried.

Laura was beginning to seriously question every life choice that lead her to be surrounded by so many twitchy teenagers at the age of 29.  “Was this place supposed to be a secret?  Clearly it was a shitty secret.” She said, conversationally.

“Look, are you going to help us or what?”  Stiles was glaring at the Hale siblings in particular, “He’s your creepy uncle.”

Laura looked to Derek for confirmation, assuming he was still an alpha.  The instant she thought it, she could tell she was wrong.  He was nodding, though, and before she could question it she was rushed out the door to try to find Scott.

\---

They eventually found Peter and the kid who had to be Scott fighting outside the burnt out shell of the Hale house, because of course. Of course it was the Hale house.  Laura felt vaguely nauseous just seeing it, but it became pretty clear that they didn’t have time to wallow in horrific childhood memories because Peter was making it pretty obvious he really had every intention of killing the young werewolf.  He was holding him against a particularly abused tree.

“What the actual fuck, Peter?”  She spoke before she even really thought about what she was saying.  Derek and Cora fell in beside her in a way that felt so natural it was a little unnerving.

The brunette looked mutinous and had the crossbow trained on Peter.  Laura could tell from where she stood that the angle was all wrong, though.  Peter pulled Scott away from the tree to hold him up as a shield, claws to his neck.

Peter turned to grin widely at them and it was everything Laura could do not to step away from him.

“We’ll be a proper family soon, Laura.  Little Scotty here is a true alpha.  With that kind of power, the Hale pack will be unstoppable.” He practically sniffed the teenagers neck and Laura’s skin crawled.  “Don’t worry yourself with the details.  You should be resting to heal faster.”

Laura opened her mouth to respond, but Derek spoke up before she could.  “Who won’t you kill to become an Alpha?”  And it finally sank in.  The reality of the fact that Peter had been the one to kill her.  Fury flooded her like nothing she’d ever felt before.  The only thing that stopped her from charging right up to him and trying to eviscerate him on the spot was Cora’s warning hand on her arm and the knowledge that they had to save the kid first.

“Oh.  You’re mad.  Don’t worry, Laura.  Family forgives.”  He was still grinning, bright and terrifying.  “I forgave Derek, you see.  I’m sure you’ll forgive me.  I made sure I could bring you back and everything.”  At his name, Laura glanced over to Derek to find he looked completely horrified.  He glanced between Laura and Peter apprehension clear on his face.

Laura figured all she could do is keep him talking until a better plan presented itself.  “What do you mean, forgave Derek?”

Peter’s disturbing expression sobered momentarily, “Well, the fire, you know?  It was his fault.”

Laura scoffed, “Couldn’t have been.  He was with me.”  She tried to steal a surreptitious glance Derek’s way, but he just looked more miserable by the second.

“But Kate wasn’t.  Guess who lead Kate right to us?”  Before Laura could ask who the hell Kate was Peter gave a sick little giggle and looked at Scott thoughtfully.  “I killed her just like this, in fact.  Isn’t that right, Allison dear?”  The brunette made a strangled sort of noise in response.  “Don’t thi-”  He cut off, abruptly.

Laura felt like the moment lasted for an eternity.  Peter slumped forward heaving black viscous blood while Scott scrambled away from him.  His descent revealed the redhaired girl holding a particularly large, gore covered knife.  She sniffed indignantly and spoke for the first time, voice tight with rage.  “Did you forget me, Peter?”

He didn’t respond.

\---

It was several stunned moments later when Laura realized that Peter wasn’t going to get back up.  She barely noticed Stiles rushing to Scott to make sure he was alright.  Erica and Boyd crowded closer to the Hale siblings while the terrifying redhead cleaned off the knife with a furious sort of determination.  Allison stood over Peter’s body, crossbow never wavering from his chest.  The lanky werewolf lingered near her awkwardly.

The red head broke the silence, “How do we make sure he doesn’t come back again.”

Laura’s head snapped up at the ‘again’.  “Who even are you?  Why hasn’t he healed?  And just how many people have died and come back?”  Erica and Boyd raised their hands, followed by Stiles, Scott, and Allison.  Laura wasn’t sure if she should laugh or not, they all looked completely serious.  Unbidden, the phrase “Team Zombie” floated through her head and she bit her tongue to stop from saying it.

Peter may have been a crazy asshole, but she probably shouldn’t crack shitty jokes over his lifeless body.

The girl, surprisingly, answered the other questions as well.  “I’m Lydia.  He -almost- killed me, so I figured I owe him one.  The knife is poisoned with wolfsbane.”  She flashed the blade, letting the sun catch on it.  Laura was pretty sure she’d never met such a tiny person that was so intimidating before.  Which was really saying something, considering she ran with werewolves.

“We should burn him.”  All three Hale siblings glared at Stiles, who shrugged as though he was entirely unconcerned.  “Look, I know, I’m sorry, but if we burn the body everyone can take a handful of ash and put it somewhere secret.  That way, even if one or more of us is getting manipulated again it will be less likely anything can happen.”

Laura swallowed and nodded, there would be a time and a place to ask for the details behind that precaution.  She was certain it would take a long time to sort through everything she was feeling, but it was hard to be supportive someone so prepared to murder for power.  Around the circle, everyone else just nodded in agreement.

\---

They ended up getting three hotel rooms while they hunted for an apartment or a house to rent that would be big enough.  When Derek had tentatively mentioned the abandoned train station Erica had snorted and eyed Laura significantly.  Laura had put her foot down.  Erica and Boyd got one room, the Hale sisters another, while Derek took up the third.  Laura wasn’t sure why Derek had a room all to himself, especially since he spent nearly all of his time in her and Cora’s room anyway.

The three of them were lounging in the girls’ hotel room.  Cora had made them popcorn out of the vending machine and was flipping through Netflix when Laura finally had to ask, “So… where were you?”  She didn’t elaborate, she didn’t have to.

With a frown, Cora looked down at the remote in her hands, “I got home a little late… Not early enough to stop her, but she hadn’t left yet.” Her face twisted at the memory, “Sometimes I think I could have stopped her…”

Laura shook her head and settled in next to Cora on the bed, “Her as in Kate?”  Cora nodded.  “Cora, you were ten.  I doubt there was anything you could have done.  You probably would have died, too.”  Cora nodded as though she’d heard it before and still didn’t really believe it.  Derek had settled on the other bed and was looking miserable in a way that Laura wished wasn’t so familiar.

Cora settled against Laura and sighed, “I almost did anyway, she saw me.  Someone had called in the fire, we could hear the sirens.  She told me to run.  She said she’d hunt me and finish off the set.”  She tucked her head into Laura’s neck and muttered, “I thought you were in there.  I had no idea…  Anyway, I ran.  I didn’t stop running until I found a pack willing to take me in.  I stayed there until someone ratted me out to the Alpha pack.”

“I’m so sorry.”  Derek’s abject misery had crumpled him, he was hunched over at the edge of the other bed.  “Peter was right.  It was my fault she knew what we are.  She must have followed me back to the house one day.”

Laura eyed the back of his head speculatively.  Something wasn’t sitting right about all that.  “You were sixteen, Derek.  Sixteen year olds sneak out of the house and do stupid shit.”

He huffed, “Do they sneak out to have affairs with older women?”

“Some of them do.  Also what the shit, how much older was she?”

“I don’t… 25, 26 I guess?”

“Jesus Christ.  Derek, you were a kid.  She fucking manipulated you.  You made mistakes, yes, but the fire is not your fault.  Peter was full of shit, you don’t need to be forgiven by us.”  Cora made a wordless sound of agreement.  “Now come here.”

He hesitated.  Laura was having none of it, “Come here or I will drag you here and Cora will not like being dislodged.”

Derek made his way over, slow like molasses, and just as he was prepared to hover awkwardly Laura snaked out a hand to drag him down to the bed with them.

He grumbled as he settled in beside her.

Laura said simply, “Shut up.  It’s Star Trek night.  Cora!  Find us the one with the whales.”


End file.
